By Rishabh Srivastava, Founder of Loki.ai
This summary was largely done for my own note-taking, sharing it just in case it adds more value to other people.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with either the presenters or the organisers. This is a summary largely taken for my own reference, and may contain errors :)
Context
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Why is it important: As governments and companies increasingly move online, a digital identity that enables trust in the delivery of online services becomes incredibly important.
Keywords
Digital Identity, Real Identity, Digital Transformation
Summary
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Highlights
A. Digital Identity in Japan
By Toshiyuki Zamma, Executive Advisor to CIO of the Japanese government
The Japanese government started "My Number" as a Digital Identity in 2016
Uses:
- Official card for identity verification
- Online application for various admin procedures
- Private online transactions
- Certificates at convenience stores
- Services provided by local, province, and national governments
Experience during Covid-19
Coverage for the My Number card has accelerated rapidly in Covid-19 as there is more demand for online services
When digital identity was initially used for cash handouts, most local governments (1700, or 98%) launched an online application through the central government's portal site. However, 111 local governments suspended online services until July because of teething issues
- Poor quality of applications
- The existing business process (BAU) was very much built around paper and wasn't totally digitized. This made it difficult to embrace digitalization
- User Experience was sub-optimal
- Most people still had a traditional way of thinking
Identity is not one – you have a real identity, and a digital identity
Use case of using the digital identity in the private sector
In the future, Japan wants to use the Digital Identity in order to provide personalized and supportive services for each citizen
B. Digital Identity in India
By Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGov India
Issues and Challenges
- ID explosion: average netizen has over 90 digital IDs now
- Multiplicity of Cloud environments
- Too many "Stacks" and "Platforms"
- Disparate Data Policies, Sandboxes
We need to enhance digital identity architectures. Most reference models are:
- Too generic
- Too dependent on individual governments
- Not innovation friendly
- "Heavy"
Because of this, the dream of one, seamless experience when consuming government services becomes distant
New architectural concepts (interlinkable databases based on open APIs)
- Digital Public Platforms: Databases that are cross-referenceable and built on top of open, stable, clearly laid out APIs
- Ecosystem Architecture: Moving away from "enterprise" architecture. Enable different stakeholders/enterprises to join hands with an ecosystem of common APIs to offer services in an integrated manner
- Societal Platforms: With the two points above, digital platforms become societal platforms where the citizen is put at the centre and ensures that user requirements are easily met
Demand for this new architectural approach is exploding:
- Health (National Digital Health Platform)
- Agriculture (Soil health data, land records, data, agricultural records data are all interlinked so that farmers an get agri-advisory on their phones)
- Education
- Women & Child Development (Nutrition)
- Smart Cities (mobility data from telco operaters/Google —> where should we put a new flyover or Metro line?)
- Social Justice
- Rural Development
- Logistics
—> helps in more informed, data-based information ecosystem
Nurture innovations and networks
- Document best practices: Share across departments. Don't need to reinvent the wheel
- Credit the teams behind initiatives, promote unsung heroes
- Nexus of the Good: create a network of civil servants who want to drive change
- Built partnerships with Civil Society, Non Profits, and Multilateral agencies
- Most nations face similar problems: Ctrl C Ctrl V works
C. Digital Identity in Singapore
By Li Wei Loh, Product Manager for SGID, Open Governments Products @Govtech
Working on SGID — extension to government's existing Digital ID program. Previously worked on data.gov.sg
Open Government Products team is an experimental team of engineers, designers, and PMs who build technology for the public good
Origin story: asked the question — What if we built an organization that operated like a modern tech company but worked on public sector problems
Companies and consumers are increasingly going digital. This is causing a massive increase in digital identity fraud cases
How can we design some of our authentication/identity services to make online transactions safer?
1. Positive verification can prevent fraudulent online activity
Without authentication, it was trivial for a malicious actor to delete an old account and simply create a new malicious account. But with authentication, this becomes really difficult
2. Businesses rely on a single common identifier. If data from one business gets compromised, it can leak over to others
SGID provides citizens with a unique alias for each business they interact with
3. Zero-knowledge data sharing to improve user privacy
D. Sailpoint: how can government's better manage security for identity-centric service models?
Checklists for governments to consider
- Do you have full visibility over each identity and system?
- Do your users get only the right access for the right resources at the right time? Are these controls automated?
- Do you know what your users are doing with their access to your organization's resources?
- Can you automatically modify or terminate access based on your metadata?
- Can you flag suspicious activity and alert the appropriate administrators?
Panel discussion
How has Covid-19 changed the needs for digital identities?
Li Wei Loh: Covid-19 hasn't fundamentally changed how identity works, but it has increased the important of identity services as the number of online transactions has ballooned multiple times. Because of this, the number of online scams have also increased
How has Aadhar helped India speed up response to Covid-19?
Abhishek Singh: Biggest use was in facilitating direct cash transfers to those who had lost their jobs as well as subsidies via Jan Dhan Accounts. Additionally, even though the contact tracing apps didn't use Aadhar, they utilized the technical expertise
What is Japan's 2030 vision for digital identity?
Toshiyuki Zamma: Japan will lose its workforce over time because of ageing, and people will need much more support from the government. Need to use digital technology to make this far more efficient and seamless.
What are Singapore OGP's core principles behind provision of digital services?
Li Wei Loh: SGID is an experiment solely focused on security and privacy for users. By providing a unique alias instead of users' actual information, that's a default "privacy-first" way to secure their information in the event of a data breach. Additionally, inclusivity is very important when thinking of improvements. We want to give up as little as possible in terms of usability for all users
India is pulling together data from multiple systems in this new architecture. How does this unlock new opportunities?
Abhishek Singh: 2 frameworks. One is the personal data protection framework that ensures that data cannot be used without a user's consent. The other is non-personal data that is available as an aggregate level and can be shared by multiple entities. This can be used to inform public policy interventions. Combining different kinds of aggregate data allows India to make much better decisions (like identifying Covid hotspots, informing agri-advice etc). Eventually, this will lead to the incubation of data businesses and better services to users